The 5th International Conference of Bionic Engineering (ICBE’16) was held in Ningbo on June 21-24, 2016. The conference was organized by the International Society of Bionic Engineering (ISBE) and sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation, the University of Nottingham (UK), the University of Nottingham Ningbo China and Jilin University (China). The conference provided an international forum for scientists and engineers who are working in the field of bionic engineering, and also for dissemination of information and knowledge exchange in biomimetics and bionic engineering.

The Chairman of the Conference was Prof. Yuying Yan from the University of Nottingham, UK. Nearly 300 representatives from 24 countries and regions attended the conference, from UK, USA, Germany, Canada, Australia, Austria, Japan, South Korea and China among others. They showed their latest academic achievements on bionic engineering and exchanged points of view on the topics of biomechanics, bionic structures, biomimetic materials, biomimetic surfaces, fluids flow and drag reductions, nature inspired designs, industrial applications in biomimetics, sensors and signal processing, energy systems, robotics, motion systems and artificial intelligence.

The Second Bionic Engineering Award Ceremony was held during the conference. Prof. Daniel Weihs from Israel Institute of Technology and Prof. Yongmei Zheng from Beihang University (China) got the Outstanding Contribution Award, Prof. Zuankai Wang from City University of Hong Kong and Prof. Zhiguang Guo from Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) got the Outstanding Youth Award, Dr. Hamed Rajabi Jorshari from Kiel University (Germany) and Jianing Wu from Tsinghua University (China) got the Outstanding Student Award. The Executive Board of Directors of ISBE and the Editorial Board of Journal of Bionic Engineering also met during the conference.

The great success of ICBE’16 not only expressed the current research achievements in Bionic Engineering but also offered a platform for representatives to communicate and cooperate with each other. It would greatly push forward the development of bionic engineering worldwide.